As I watched the first season of Marvel's Daredevil, sometimes I would think to myself, “This is the craziest version of Law & Order I've ever seen.”

That was no accident, according to Charlie Cox, who plays Matt Murdock, a.k.a. Daredevil. The second season of the gritty series debuts Friday, March 18, on Netflix.

“This is a crime show with a superhero element sprinkled on top,” Cox explained.

“It's one of the things that Steven DeKnight talked about at the beginning of last season – he was our showrunner last year who sadly couldn't take over this year – but he would say, 'What we're trying to make here is a crime drama,' It kind of plays into what you're saying about this being in the crime genre.

“I certainly had no idea the show would be as popular as it was, but I think with the benefit of hindsight, I can say it was a really smart move. It's very, very tempting to have a superhero movie or show and make it about the powers. Whereas if you can find a way of ignoring that almost completely, and cooking your dish without it, then you can just use it as pepper on top, to use a culinary metaphor.

“And Frank Castle becomes the ketchup.”

A character named Frank Castle, who is destined to become The Punisher and is played by Jon Bernthal, has joined the cast of Daredevil for Season 2. I'm not sure how Frank Castle would react to being called “ketchup,” but there sure seems to be a lot of blood spilled whenever Frank is around.

Marvel's Daredevil, of course, focuses on Cox's Matt Murdock, who was blinded as a boy but has developed extraordinary senses. Matt fights against injustice by day as a lawyer, and by night as a superhero nicknamed Daredevil, in the modern-day Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City.

Foggy Nelson (played by Elden Henson) and Karen Page (played by Deborah Ann Woll) are Matt's cohorts at the law office. In addition to Bernthal's Punisher, the Season-2 cast also includes Elodie Yung as Elektra, Rosario Dawson as Claire Temple and Scott Glenn as Stick.

Daredevil and Punisher have different philosophies when it comes to punishing those who they determine deserve it. As Bernthal's Punisher says to Daredevil, “I do the one thing that you can't. You hit 'em and they get back up. I hit 'em and they stay down.”

Not that Cox's Daredevil is Mr. Sunshine, either.

“What the writers do, and hopefully we (the actors) can bring it to life, is present characters who, on the surface, aren't always heroic,” Cox said. “Matt Murdock at times is incredibly selfish. He believes that this is how something needs to be dealt with, and he doesn't care what other people think.”

Not even those who are closest to him.

“(Matt) doesn't even care what Foggy thinks,” Cox pointed out. “Ultimately, one of the things we learned about (Matt) last year is there are things that are more important to him than his best friend, when he believes those things contribute toward the greater good.

“And so when we see these characters, and again with what Jon did this year with Frank Castle which is so exciting to watch, we see characters who we recognize as flawed. We see them do things that we think are questionable. But then they also are capable of great heroic acts and great unselfishness.

“And with that, hopefully we ask the question of ourselves, what is a hero? What makes a hero?”

Those are just some of the big questions being asked in the shocking new season of Law & Order. Uh, I mean Marvel's Daredevil. Hey, forgive me, it's kind of a crime show first and a superhero show second.

“Season 1 was a very slow burn,” Charlie Cox said. “Season 2, you hit the ground running and it's just mayhem.

“Matt Murdock happened to the world in Season 1. In Season 2, the world happens to Matt Murdock.”

Charlie Cox says 'Marvel's Daredevil' a crime show first

As I watched the first season of Marvel's Daredevil, sometimes I would think to myself, “This is the craziest version of Law & Order I've ever seen.”

That was no accident, according to Charlie Cox, who plays Matt Murdock, a.k.a. Daredevil. The second season of the gritty series debuts Friday, March 18, on Netflix.

“This is a crime show with a superhero element sprinkled on top,” Cox explained.

“It's one of the things that Steven DeKnight talked about at the beginning of last season – he was our showrunner last year who sadly couldn't take over this year – but he would say, 'What we're trying to make here is a crime drama,' It kind of plays into what you're saying about this being in the crime genre.